Tuesday, 27 August 2013

International Remittance and the Discriminatory Attitude of Malaysian Banks

International Remittance and discriminatory attitude/operation of your staff.

For a few years now, customers like me who are of African descent have endured various types of derogatory/discriminatory actions from Malaysian Banks. Myself and I’m sure most Nigerians resident in Malaysia strongly support your effort at protecting your customers and riding the Malaysian financial system of fraudsters who we all know are of various races and ethnicity. Of recent, the discrimination has gotten bolder and is now fine-tuned to perfection.

How does one explain how a Student who identifies himself with his international passport, valid student visa and a verification letter from his university is denied banking service (western union) for ridiculous reasons. The scary part is they let you know they are lying but are not just willing to render the service.

The madness going on in these banks is out of control as customers like me are subjected to all sort of ridicule before deciding if we should be served or not. Gone are the days when everyone leaves whatever they are doing and cluster around your international passport whispering and giggling like cave men who are seeing a mirror for the first time. The discrimination is now bold and daring.

Banks and The reasons they give for not rendering banking services

(BSN) Bank Simpana Nasional (Taman Kerjasama, Bukit beruang branch)

Their server is always down 5 days a week no matter what, but if you tell them I want to send money the server starts working all of a sudden.

(BSN) Bank Simpana Nasional (batu berendam, Melaka Baru)
It depends on who you meet there. Its either their server is down or they’ll tell you this and I quote “Bro, before you receive money here, you have to open account with us”

I’ve heard that so much that my response now is “Okay, I want to open one” and he/she replies “but server down now”

Public bank (Batu berendam, Melaka Baru)

They are a little bit smarter to out rightly claim their server is down as soon as you walk into the banking hall. They are the time wasters, they let you fill the form and try to frustrate you.

Always wanting a document that does not exist. Every month, the lady that approves western union transactions always wants a document more credible than my international passport and visa.

I don’t know why I go back here. The smirk on their faces as soon as you enter the banking hall says a lot. This is the bank where the Chinese lady says "no server" without even knowing why I’m there.

Lotus Group ( Melaka Central)

You are at the mercy of someone in Kuala Lumpur. After keying in your data, the cashier has to make a call seeking approval to attend to you. You'll wait for hours. Nowadays, they just tell you no because transactions for African customers don’t get approved. So the cashier would rather avoid it.

These are the kind of despicable people Africans deal with anytime we go to the bank. We are not allowed to work, yet they don’t want us to receive money from family. WTH?